Female-led start-ups have been reminded that the final call for the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurs’ Female High Fliers accelerator has been made.

Last year's winner was Love & Robots, which won the overall title and €50,000 investment for its innovative business.

The programme aims to address challenges facing female entrepreneurs of early stage businesses and help develop key business skills, achieve scale and create employment.

On completion of the 13 week Female High Fliers Programme, participants will take part in a showcase event day at which each company will pitch to a network of investors, mentors and corporates.

Female High Fliers is open to female founders of Irish or international startups less than 5 years old. All companies must be led by women and will be selected on the basis of their growth and export potential as well as team strength. To learn more go here

“We ran a hugely successful progamme last year with 12 young businesses chosen from 135 quality applications,” said Niamh Collins, chief of operations at DCU Ryan Academy.

“All of these businesses left with a better understanding of themselves and the skills they needed to achieve their full potential plus the knowledge and tools needed to create exceptional business models. I would encourage any female-led business out there, less than five years old and interested in fast-tracking their business, to get in touch with us before 31 March.”

Women Inventis Silicon Republic’s campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. It has been running since March 2013, and is kindly supported by Accenture Ireland, Intel, the Irish Research Council, ESB, Twitter, CoderDojo and Science Foundation Ireland.

Inspire 2015is Silicon Republic’s unique international sci-tech event running 18-19 June in Dublin, connecting professionals passionate about the future of STEM with fresh perspectives on leadership, innovation and diversity.Buy your early bird tickets now! Get in early and grab the ‘Two-for-one’ tickets before the end of March. You don’t want to miss this!